Bronze

I was wondering what other CCR cardholders have experienced in terms of recognition/service when flying with British Airways as a CCR member.

I have been completely underwhelmed by the distinct lack of any type of recognition. As a P1 with Qantas, I had invites to multiple events and a welcome back from the CSM on every flight.

I went from newbie to nearly 11000 TP's with BA and I honestly haven't noticed any difference at all in terms of customer service. I have only ever flown 2 sectors in Y with BA; LHR-MAN return, prior to Domestic CE being introduced. Every other long haul flight has been in First, and short haul CE.

I fly a lot between Europe and Australia/New Zealand and my last flight was 4 weeks ago with BA on their 777 LHR-SIN-SYD. SIN-SYD was the most appalling service received to date.

If my next trip to UK isn't a vast improvement, I'll be taking my business to QR.

Tobias-UK

What recognition is it that you were expecting?​​​​​​

fin_dg

If you're not getting noticed, maybe try pinning your CCR card to your jacket. If that doesn't work, search the DYKWIA thread for a few additional tips. ;-)

EuropeanPete

They recognize your card at the Concorde Room, but it's really not meant to be anything beyond that.

LTN Phobia

Aren't 6k, 7k, 8k, 9k benefits rather generous though?

Sometimes service received on board, even in F, is not exactly great. But I can say the same about QF. The most appalling service to date I have ever had from any airline was with QF, and I had more than enough status credits at the time to qualify for P1 if such a programme existed at the time. The most appalling customer services on the ground I have ever received from any airline to date has also been from QF, unfortunately.

You also seem to get "welcome back" comment from QF upon boarding if you have any status - including BA, it appears, based on what I got on my last 100 or so QF flights in the last few years.

QF, admittedly, seem to have improved their customer services greatly in the last few years, although I am so unimpressed with their J seats that I refuse to fly long haul J on QF unless it's the refurbished A330.

QF isn't all rosey in my view. Neither is BA, but I'd rather have tangible benefits like 6k, 7k, 8k and 9k ones any time than on-board or on-the-ground recognition.

I'm not saying I don't get any recognition on BA though. Earlier this month, it was pretty clear on my first BA flight in 6 weeks as the excellent CSM greeted me on a short haul flight. It made me feel warm and 'at home', almost a reminder of how warm BA service can feel as I have spent more time on BA aircraft than any others (although QF comes pretty close due to weekly domestic commute followed by monthly Europe-Australia commute in my previous life). It's not the recognition as such, it's the warm chat that I prefer to have. I don't want priority, and I don't want pandering to. I had some very nice banters with BA crew on my subsequent flight too. You don't always get that on some other carriers.

I have to say good QF crew tend to be excellent with this, as they've nearly had me falling about laughing on many occasions - and again, no pandering, just friendly banters.

BA do invite some CCR card holders (although appears to be limited to those who are not far from London, with most events being held in London) to events. Come to think of it, QF invited me to an event when I was based near London, and when I was based near Sydney but never when I was elsewhere.

I have a simple rule. If I feel that an airline consistently annoys me or annoys me so seriously that I do not feel I would be happy to potentially subject myself to it again, I would take my business elsewhere. I don't need to part with my money to an organisation for them to annoy me as i have enough annoyances in life to deal with, without their doing that to me as well. So, I do recommend, for one's own mental health, trying someone else such as QR for a while, and see if they are more to your liking.

Besides it's a good idea in some ways to spread across different alliances so you could consider flying SQ Suite/F instead to/from Australia/NZ also. SQ Suite is a totally different product from BA F as you probably know and I find them very good.

MarkedMan

This. I do half as many as 11k on a good year, but if I was going to do so many, even with the tangible benefits one gets at the higher "thousand" thresholds I would absolutely spread it around. Taking the question at face value, this is a bit of a mixed bag of an issue. On short hauls I am usually in row 1 when in CE and the very best CSMs absolutely recognise me, often spend quite a bit of time talking to me and so on and so on, as happened recently on a flight to WAW. It's not so much the recognition as such that I appreciate in these cases as it is the reciprocal interest in what we are up to, the "human touch" if you will. I am not in the slightest looking to be served here more than anyone else, but occasionally this does come with nice extra touches, which I often turn down, as much as I appreciate them. This style of service has been so far completely absent in any Qatar flight I have taken, FWIW.

In F technically there really should be little to no difference in service provided to passengers, it is not in my mind a cabin which justifies differentiation based on status. That said, there have been occasions when the crew have taken care to make sure I have what I need before serving others who perhaps may have been upgraded. It's not something I would expect to see a great deal of in F. Of course service can be consistently poor at times on a flight and in any cabin, it just happens. I'd have to agree that, if it gets too much, it is wise for one's own sanity to move on as this is def not something to get ourselves knotted over about, esp. when we can afford to fly in significant comfort.

As for events, with a CCR card for a little while and being walking distance from the London locations usually picked, I have yet to receive any invitations. I am sure my account has the appropriate black ball symbol on it to make sure it doesn't happen Most definitely not something I am going to worry over, to be honest, but I can see it is something that might grate.

For me, when I had to decide whether to requal or not for a CCR card this year, it came down to a clear negative, the truly awful evolution of most of the short haul product, on which I spend a great deal of time, set against the benefit of having access to the CCR on all those SH flights. The rest is gravy.

Fly2Where

In fact, i am extremely happy with BA on board after I qualified for GGL for the first time in sept. 6 out of 8 flights (including 2 Y), I was recognized by name on board, asked me if I need anything. However, my wife, who are on the same flight with me, never get recognized once, and she qualified GGL with me at the same time. She doesnt care a bit, since on board crew we encountered were all very nice.
maybe I was the one booking the flight and they have record?
when we had transfer in shanghai in Sept, we even received SSU service helped us with connection, so we dont have to go thru immigration, flying AA. It saved us at least an hour plus trolling with the luggage. I can only think AA gave me the service due to my status on BA.
Good job BA! I booked 5 trips with BA since then. A looooooong break with AA....

Bronze

I don't even use the GGL luggage tags. There's a huge difference in the levels of recognition of passenger loyalty between airlines I've flown.

I'm lucky to get a 'welcome back" flying BA. I'm interested in other's experience as I'm new flying BA.

I certainly don't want overt attention from any staff. I used to get embarrassed with being escorted from the aircraft through security when flying Qantas into Heathrow.

Can I help you

Cabin crew have no idea who has a CCR card and I have never seen any proactive contact messages for any of these, we would recognise you Executive level only.

LTN Phobia

That's normal - you don't always get any comment. (By the way I'm talking about Gold/GGL greeting - as CIHY said, CCR card isn't a status that crew members see).

I suspect one of the reasons is lack of time. On short haul, unlike QF 737 with just 12 J seats, it's not entirely unusual for BA to have 52 J seats on an A320. Senior cabin crew member does the service in CE so they would be pretty pressed for time, serving 52 CE passengers (they wouldn't be on their own doing this but they're the ones with the iPad that shows the status more clearly).

By and large I get more personal greetings from BA crew on longer sectors so it tallies with the time element.

My view is that F passengers should be treated equally regardless of status, except for perhaps staff travel and op-ups but they should be done so discreetly that no-one else would notice any difference.

corporate-wage-slave

In which case I'm not sure why you are underwhelmed. It's not the CCR that gets you a "welcome back", it's GGL that triggers that, indirectly, on to the iPads. I normally do get a "welcome back", but I've been around long enough to get to know many SCCM. But if I'm sat in the window seat towards the back of a packed A321 to EDI, realistically it's not going to happen, and at that point it would be somewhat overt anyway. BA has a lot of frequent flyers and with relatively low staff levels one needs to be realistic here. 11k TPs isn't visible to crew, nor is it that unusual. The main form of recognition you get is more tangiible, via the suite of GGL benefits - of which the CCR card is one, along with the GUFs and what not.

fin_dg

Don't mind me, just a bit of banter. I've flown mostly on BA for the last 10 years and I've hit gold for the last 4 and GGL/CCR this year for the first time. 90% of my flights are long-haul for business in CW and out of LHR, so the check-in, security process and lounges are of greatest benefit to me. The occasional OpUp is always a very welcome surprise. I find there is little consistency in the recognition of status on-board, but it doesn't worry me that much. Sometimes the CSD will stop by to say thanks, sometimes they don't; sometimes I get escorted to my OpUp F seat, sometimes the CC are already escorting other passengers. Sometimes I get asked if there is anything I need, sometimes I don't. I don't take the inconsistency as ignoring status, I think there is possibly more CC/CSD discretion applied than in other airlines and/or more likely, the crew to passenger ratio is particularly bad and they've just got other things to worry about. Regardless of that, a genuine smile or a bit of banter/conversation in the galley is always offered if you want to engage and I probably appreciate that more than anything.

Globaliser

Maybe you should try changing your FT handle?

You don't need to read very far on this board to see that BA does not do onboard status recognition well. If that is what you're looking for, then other airlines will provide more of it. Different people have different needs.

baflyer123

From what I know CCR's show up as gold in the printed sheets. The CSM's app shows as Gold as well but your CVV score will show up as 97. If you use a high priority space release there is a higher chance the CSM will know. This is my understanding I could be wrong.

This year I will have done about 45 long haul F flights with BA and I always go with low expectations in air and on ground. I personally like the rewards at 6K, 7K, 8K and 9K.

Airprox

The iPad shows the GGL crown logo on the seat.